The goal of the project is to engage in a Hackathon day to build a HAB launch vehicle and payload, and on the following day, launch, track, and recover the balloon payload. In doing so, we hope to give Cornell students some exposure to HAM radio as well as supplement their Cornell education with some additional hands-on engineering experience.

We plan to launch a latex weather balloon with a Raspberry Pi and camera payload, transmit images back to ground using SSTV, and track the balloon using APRS. To cover a broad array of interests, we will offer several sub projects such as antenna builds and the various balloon subsystems.

A list of parts for each of those sub projects and at least 50% of the list should be ordered or at least have a firm plan for sourcing those parts for build day.

A mapping of participants to projects (or at least a 1-2-3 ranking of what project they'd like to work on)

A list of people committed to taking the HAM licensing exam (again, licenses are NOT required, just icing on the cake). That way we can organize rides and such to 92 Brown Road on 1/27.

Liaisons

Name

Affiliation

Jon

CARC

Hannah

CRITERS

Udit

IEEE

Issues

Burst altitude forecast models exist for some documented, but more expensive balloons.

Purchase more expensive “well documented” balloon ($70ish) or less predictable one ($25ish)?

More expensive balloons offer higher altitude missions. They also require more lifting gas (and expense) and the payload will land farther away. The proposed balloon has a targeted burst at 12,000-15,000 feet if we wish the payload to land within a reasonable driving distance (60-100 miles).

Do we want to buy offset attenuators and/or inexpensive radios to use with the Yagi antennas?

Budget - Real time mission web presence (Priority Three)

Trajectory / Burst / Landing forecast (Priority Three)

Provides recommendation to launch team for initial balloon volume / free lift, based on predictions, to produce a reasonable flight.

Potentially integrates with real time mission web presence.

Doppler Build (Priority Three)

As we mount more balloon missions, it would be beneficial to have a fixed doppler station for DF purposes. That way, even with only one mobile bearing we might be able to triangulate. This will also be a useful addition to foxhunts.

There are several kits for building DF dopplers, the most popular of which seems to be the PicoDopp. Other doppler kits are approximately the same cost and complexity, so the total parts bill would be approximately $200.

We can install a 2m and 70cm doppler array on the roof of Barton and put it on the internet for remote usage.